Lila Loa

Grayscale Snowmen -- Cookies and Cards

I have kept myself pretty busy today.

I did two half loads of laundry. And by that I mean I *washed* two loads of laundry. I even dried them both. But then I tried to trick my husband into folding the first load by putting it on our bed when I knew he would be going to sleep before me tonight. But then he tricked me back by not caring. Also... has anyone ever successfully gotten an entire load of laundry out of the dryer in ONE armload? Because I'm starting to think that it's not even possible. The very fact that it can't be done pretty much guarantees that I will try it. Every time. And it certainly doesn't stop a certain grown up adult man in my household from laughing at me every time I try to grab the last sock only to drop some unmentionables.

I washed every dish in my entire house. For some reason they were all in the sink. You would think we eat actual food here. I was surprised to discover just how many spoons I own. I always kind of thought that the set only came with 3 spoons in the first place. But as it turns out... we have more than two sets of silverware. And some from the neighbor.

I worked on an engine.

I made some red fondant. And at one point when I was kneading a small handful, I realized that it was the exact color of a human heart. And my hands were covered in red food coloring. And I was totally grossed out and had to go drink some water and look at what complete strangers found "funny" on Pinterest for awhile. (Why aren't any of you wondering why I know exactly what a human heart looks like?! That's creepy weird.) (I'm not creepy weird. I took pre-med classes once.)

And on top of all of that, I made these cookies. Because, I kind of forgot that today was the first Friday of the month. And on the first Friday of the month, I get to use one of my talented cousin's fabulous cards for inspiration for cookies. Luckily for me, I have a long waiting list of her creative cards that I want to make into a cookie. And a dehydrator. That sure helped out today. PS -- Did you notice that these guys are color-free? Yep! They're also for my Forget About Color Challenge. Double duty. I've never been more productive in my entire life.

This is the cute, cute, CUTE card she made. (More details HERE.) Am I the only one that fell in love with that little guy at first sight?! Adorable.

I cut out a scalloped cookie and then I cut a hole in the middle of it with a round cutter. And let me just tell you... do the cutting ON the baking sheet. Or it will get all sorts of weirdly distorted.

1. Using gray 15 second icing and a #2 tip, pipe a circle on the inside of the scallop.
2. Immediately start drawing "lines" up inside each scallop. Think of it like drawing the letter "E"over and over again, except you had to do it in a big circle and it doesn't actually spell anything.
3. Through the powers of sugar in liquid form, the "E's" magically turn into a nearly perfect scallop border.
4. Using the same consistency of white icing and a #1 tip, add a dot of icing in the middle of each scallop.

1. The bottom cookie is a plain circle that is the same size, or slightly smaller than the scalloped cookie. Ice that cookie up and don't pay too much attention to the edges. No, seriously. Don't even look at mine. Eh. Go ahead. They are all wonky. And that's okay. Spend your time stressing out about everything else in your life. But not these cookies. Let them dry for a good long while. Overnight would be ideal.
2. Grab a black food color marker (you could also use a #1.5 tip and thick black icing) and draw a little snowman.
3. Pipe some little gray dots and stars for snow. Randomly fill in hat stripes with gray icing. I actually painted the hat stripes with the gray icing because there was a paintbrush right there next to me. And it was looking up at me all lonely-like, and I couldn't just walk away.
4. Pipe a thin line of icing on the back of the scalloped cookie.

5. Press them together and let them dry. You could just leave it like this if you wanted to. I'm pretty sure that is what normal people would do.
6. The next few steps are kind of hard to see. I'm sorry. With white icing, pipe a small snow mound over the bottom of the snowman cookie.
7. Cover it with sanding sugar. Or sugar crystals. Or regular type granulated sugar. Let it dry for at least 15 minutes.
8. Gently shake off the excess sugar. And then eat it. Because all that work makes you hungry.

Are you guys finding it a challenge to give up colors? I'll be honest. This is the THIRD set of cookies I tried to do in black and white and the shades in between. It is not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. What can I say? I like colors.

Don't forget to stop by Pam's blog to see what cookie she made into a card!!

LilaLoa

The Cookie Artist

Georganne Bell is the mess maker and cookie decorator behind the cookie blog LilaLoa. Obsessed with color and texture, she has been experimenting and creating with cookies and icing since 2010. She also gives plenty of unsolicited advice and occasionally does laundry before it becomes strictly necessary.

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